Cockroach eggs in taco meat-Fiction!

There are several different versions of stories about people who accidentally got infested with roach eggs in their mouths or salivary glands, then experienced a disgusting mouthful of hatched roaches. Some versions say a person got infected with the eggs by eating contaminated meat from a fast food restaurant. Other versions say the eggs have been contracted through licking envelopes. The stories claim there have been reports on CNN and in the New York Times.

The Truth:

There have been no documented cases of this happening and it has been a common urban legend for quite some time. No news articles on the infestations have been found on CNN, in the New York Times, or any other legitimate news source.

updated 07/16/12

Advertisement

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Version #1“Subject: Licking Envelopes

If you lick your envelopes…You won’t anymore!!!

A woman was working in a post office in California. One day she licked the envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge. That very day the lady cut her tongue on the envelope. A week later, she noticed an abnormal swelling of her tongue. She went to the doctor, and they found nothing wrong. Her tongue was not sore or anything. A couple of days later her tongue started to swell more, and it began to get really sore, so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital, and demanded something be done. The doctor, took an x-ray of her tongue, and noticed a lump. He prepared her for minor surgery. When the doctor cut her tongue open, a live roach crawled out. There were roach eggs on the seal of the envelope. The egg was able to hatch inside of her tongue, because of her saliva. It was warm and moist… This is a true story reported on CNN. (Supposedly) Andy Hume wrote: Hey, I used to work in an envelope factory. You wouldn’t believe the…..things that float around in those gum applicator trays. I haven’t licked an envelope for years. “

———————————————————————————————————————————————- Version #2

TRUE Rumor: HEY! HOW ABOUT TACO BELL

This girl was really in a hurry one day so she just stopped off at a Taco Bell and got a Chicken soft taco and ate it on the way home. That night she noticed her jaw was kind of tight and swollen. The next day it was a little worse so she went to her doctor. He said she just had an allergic reaction to something and gave her some cream to rub on her jaw to help. After a couple of days the swelling had just gotten worse and she could hardly move her jaw. She went back to her doctor to see what was wrong. Her doctor had no idea so he started to run some tests. They scrubbed out the inside of her mouth to get tissue samples and they also took some saliva samples. Well, they found out what was wrong. Apparently her chicken soft taco had a pregnant roach in it, then she ate it—the eggs then some how got into her saliva glands and well, she was incubating them. They had to remove a couple of layers of her inner mouth to get all the eggs out. If they hadn’t figured out what was going on, the eggs would have hatched inside the lining of her mouth!!!!!!!!!!

She’s suing Taco Bell! Of course. If you need to find out more about this, it’s in the Nov. 19th NY Times. If you still want Taco Bell after this one, you’re really brave. PASS THE WORD AND BE VERY CAREFUL !